This State May Ditch Obamacare for Single-Payer Healthcare This November

[insta8er]

President Obama's signature health reform law, the Affordable Care Act -- which you probably know as "Obamacare" -- has been controversial and generally disliked by about half of Americans since it was signed into law in March 2010.

The Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking Poll has been closely monitoring the public's sentiment toward Obamacare on a near-monthly basis since it was signed into law. You can essentially count on two hands how many months over the past six years the general public had a "favorable" view on the law.

Although Obamacare enrolled about 12.7 million people through its marketplace exchanges in 2016, and a nearly equal number of lower-income individuals and families have gained medical coverage through the expansion of Medicaid in 31 states, the program's long-term survival is still in question, with premium prices looking as if they could soar by a double-digit percentage in 2017. Another analysis conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that a weighted average increase of 11% could be in store, based on the price of the lowest-cost silver plan in 2016 compared to 2017.

Obamacare's shortcomings threaten its future
"What's wrong with Obamacare?" you might be wondering. Unfortunately, there's no single or centralized problem, but rather a confluence of factors that have come together to put the future of President Obama's hallmark legislation in doubt.

First, young-adult enrollment hasn't been up to par. Young adults are typically healthier and less likely to go to the doctor, meaning their enrollment and premium payments are vital for insurers looking to offset the higher costs of treating sicker and/or older Americans. By a similar token, the Shared Responsibility Payment, or SRP, may not be steep enough to encourage young adults to enroll. The SRP is the "penalty" assessed for violating the individual mandate by not buying health insurance. In 2014, the SRP was the greater of $95 or 1% of modified adjusted gross income, or MAGI. In 2016, it has jumped to the greater of $695 or 2.5% MAGI. Even with this jump, the Kaiser Family Foundation predicts an average penalty of $969, which is still far less than the cost of a full year of healthcare premium payments.


http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/07/03/this-state-may-ditch-obamacare-for-single-payer-he.aspx

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1. Obamacare has been a huge success for those previously uninsured. And it has lowered . . .

healthcare costs tremendously. Of course repugs don't like it and want to ditch, when tweaking and improving it could make it even better.

[insta8er]

3. I can tell you that Obamacare for me came with an increase of 30% for 2016, I can see

why people want single payer. If you read the article you can see that the demographic that was supposed to make Obamacare work is absent in the numbers they were hoping for. Currently I am paying $1300 a month for a silver plan. The prospect of a double digit increase for next year isn't really appealing to me as anyone might understand.

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4. Of course single payer is most desirable but the chances of it happening anytime soon . . .

is probably not in the cards. The ACA though can be tweaked and improved for those in your income bracket.

Let's hope that happens.

[pnwmom]

2. Not quite. This would be achieved through the ACA, which set up tax incentives

for states that wanted to try this.

Unfortunately, Vermont tried and failed. Hopefully Colorado will lead the way.